On September 29, Rebecca Keeter’s UCO 1200, “Appalachian Music and Dance,” students attended a session led by Special Collections Reading Room Manager Dean Williams about genealogy sources. The students have an assignment this semester to trace their family genealogies to an ancestor outside of the United States, and from there, learn a dance of that country and teach it to their classmates. Williams explained how to use the AncestryLibrary database and then the students used the class as a work period to start creating their family trees (pictured).

On October 2 and 14, Preservation and Digital Projects Archivist Pam Mitchem led two instructional sessions for UCO 1200, “Pictures and Stories: Our Place,” taught by Chery Zibisky and David Crosby. The students’ assignment was to choose a place, which could be and building, area, or landmark, and discuss its history in a research paper. The students used the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection and the University Archives, including the digitized collection of Appalachian State Historical Photographs.

On October 10 and 13, Lorraine Harris’ three sections of ENG 1000, "Expository Writing," met with Reference Archivist/Librarian Greta Browning in Special Collections for a work session using University yearbooks (1922-1992, 2004-2006) and student handbooks (1930s-1980s) for an assignment about historical dating rules and social interaction on campus. Students are pictured above using yearbooks in the Cratis Williams Reading Room.

Our database CQ Researcher is often a good place to start looking at a topic. Each report contains charts, graphs, sidebar articles, a pro-con feature, chronology, lengthy bibliographies, and a list of contacts. They address "hot" topics.

The Library offers on-campus access to Scopus through November 20. Scopus is an Elsevier product (like Science Direct), which can be used to find articles on your topic, articles that cite an article you've already found, and articles that cite you or an author you're interested in. It is especially strong in the sciences, health sciences, and social sciences. (I say articles, but Scopus has also added records for 75,000 books recently.) The "Cited by" and citation analysis functions are similar to what is offered in Google Scholar and Web of Science. We are not likely to keep both Web of Science and Scopus.

It is not currently set up to link to full text of articles, but it will link effectively if we acquire it.

Belk Library and Nerd Network are hosting a Humans vs Zombies gaming event. Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to play! There will be food available at the beginning of the event. We suggest that you bring your own Nerf gun. The first 45 participants without a Nerf gun will be loaned either a six dart or a three dart Nerf blaster.

Humans vs Zombies is a game of tag. Most of the players begin as humans with the objective to evade the growing number of zombies and be the last human "alive."

Players wanting to do zombie makeup can arrive at 9:00 pm to be zombiefied!

Game Rules

The game will be played on all of the levels of the library.

Students without Nerf guns volunteer to start the game as zombies.

Zombies two hand tag a human to infect them.

After being tagged, humans hold up one arm to identify himself or herself as a new zombie. New zombies drop off their Nerf guns to designated areas and then play as a zombie.

All participants should have one foot on the ground at all times.

One foam dart to the torso or two to the extremities stops a zombie.

Zombies aren't out of the game when hit with a foam dart, but must “respawn” by going to the designated zones for a five minute time out.

The game continues until there is only one human (or close to one human) remaining.

Nerf Gun modifications are allowed, but due to safety reasons, no guns can be in neutral colors (grey, black, green, camo, etc.)

October is North Carolina Archives Month. This year’s theme is “North Carolina at Play: Health and Leisure in Our State.” In honor of this, we are highlighting our Camp Catawba Collection in an exhibit located in the Cratis Williams Reading Room on the fourth floor of the library.

Located near Blowing Rock North Carolina, Camp Catawba was an overnight summer camp for boys aged 6 to 12. It operated from 1944-1970 under the direction of Jewish-German poet and educator Vera Lachmann.

Camp Facilities included twenty acres and three buildings. Art, music, and drama were emphasized. Lachmann taught Greek myths and directed theatrical productions. Her partner, Tui St. George Tucker, provided musical instruction. Campers participated in an array of outdoor activities including horseback riding, swimming, and hiking.

This exhibit focuses on the camp’s boys at play. It includes images of camp life and a map developed as part of a game. View the rest of the collection as well as our many other collections in the Dougherty Reading Room.

More information about Archives Month is available from the Society of North Carolina Archivists' website.

Works by Automotive Artist Carlo Demand on Display in the LibraryArt from the Mark & Barbara Moskowitz Collection is currently on display in the fourth floor atrium of Belk Library as well as several locations in the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. German-born artist Carlo Demand is known for his depictions of race cars, airplanes, trucks, and other automotive vehicles. Much of his work was done in charcoal or gouache. He published several books of his work and also did commercial art and illustrations for books, magazines, and newspapers. He was a founding member of the Automobile Fine Arts Society. Demand died in 2000. Exhibit closes December 5, 2014.

An Evening with Norman Jordan
Come have your mind blown. Evening will begin with a short biographical film entitled, "Life as a poet in Cleveland, Ohio in 1972." Mr. Jordan will read his work as well as speak on Affrilachia, Affrilachian poetry, & West Virginia. See the flier here.

Sponsored by: Appalachian State University's Center for Appalachian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences

Co sponsored by: Department of Cultural, Gender, and Global Studies Department of English Richard T. Barker Friends of the University Libraries Center for Multicultural Student Development Department of Sociology